must fill his own vision. Let us, however, in the onset, do him the justice of admitting that, with this qualificationnatural, perhaps laudable-and an occasional depreciatory remark, sometimes amounting almost to a sneer, at the Reformed religion-natural it may be, but not laudable-the book is written temperately, elegantly, and with a certain scholarly appreciation of literature and literary men that will commend it to general favor. The work is neither political nor polemical, though the civil and religious position of Rome has, of course, to some extent, received occasional discussion and comment. This, indeed, was inevitable; but, on the whole, Cardinal Wiseman has judiciously chosen to occupy less debatable ground, where men of all politics and all denominations of Christianity may sympathize with him. He does not profess to write a history, nor even complete biographies, but he gives, to quote his own words," so much of a moving picture as caught one person's eye, and remained fixed upon his memory that portion of it which came nearest to him, touched him most closely, interested most deeply his feelings." Every page of the volume affords evidence that the feelings of the writer are engaged in all he deals with. The portions of that picture, to follow his own illustration, are all bright: sunlight shines upon every one, and every thing; the shadows and the darkness are not for his pencil. Some other limner may depict them. Yet he does not deny that such may, and must, exist in Rome as elsewhere, as every where-he only shuns, or perhaps shuts his eyes to them. Well, be it so. As he professes to be but a selecter, we have no right to quarrel with him for selecting that which is most to his taste or to his purpose. Others, no doubt, will be found to fill in the darker colors with a touch perhaps as true to nature. The first portrait which Cardinal Wiseman presents to us is one well suited to his taste. Veneration might well be accorded by all to the amiable and the excellent pontiff, Pius VII., who again occupied the chair from which he had been so rudely forced by Napoleon. None could withhold from him respect and admiration for his courage, constancy, and endurance during the imprisonment to which he was subjected, though there may mingle with VOL. XLIV.-NO. IV. the sentiment some feeling of sorrow for the weakness (excusable in the worn-out captive) that succumbed to the threats or the seductions of Napoleon, and gave assent to the concordat that signed away his temporal power-a weakness nobly condoned by his subsequent firmness. Shortly after their arrival in Rome several of the English boys, and the writer amongst them, were presented to the Pope. The reception was that which a father, rather than a sovereign, would accord, and, no doubt, had its full effect on the youths. We can well believe in "the gentleness, condescension, and sweetness of speech," which is recorded, nor would we detract from the grace of the act in the sovereign and the pontiff; but we would assure the writer of one fact upon which he seems to entertain a doubt, namely, "how a dignitary of any other religion would receive a body of youths about to devote themselves to the service of his creed, or whether he would think it worth while to admit them at all to an interview." No dignitary of the Anglican Church would fail to receive such a body, or any individual of them, seeking his presence and advice, as a father should receive a child; but the act would scarcely seem one of condescension, or justify any particular emotion of gratitude. True, the position of the two bishops is widely different in temporalibus we admit, but the comparison is not of our instituting but of Dr. Wiseman's, and seems but suggested for the purpose of conveying a covert sneer. But let this pass. The portraiture of Pius is elaborately wrought, and highly finished, and we find no fault with the partiality that would bring out in strong light and high relief the fine points of his subject, leaving out the defective. The picture by Sir Thomas Lawrence is familiar to every body. The commentary upon it, by Cardinal Wiseman, is itself a piece of painting. the chair, and seeking support from its arms, "The pose of the body, sunk unelastic into the wearied stoop and absence of energy in the limbs and head, tell us of seventy-seven years, among which had been some of calamity and grief. And yet the hair, scarcely bearing a trace of time, or of that more violent hand which often has been known to do in one night forehead still smooth and unfurrowed by wrinkthe work of years, but black and flowing, the les, the mouth not dragged down, but cleanly impressed with a habitual smile, show the 33 serene and enduring mind with which the high-hearted secretary, whose moral vicissitudes of a long life had been passed, a strength so effectually sustained his less life of rare passages and changes from a noble vigorous master, have added many details home to a cloister; from the cowl to the miter; from the bishopric to the See of Peter; then exhibit Pius VII. as a man of the most of a more private nature. All conjoined from the palace to the dungeon; and now, at last again from Savona to Rome. That there amiable nature, patient under suffering, should be lassitude, and even feebleness, mark- gentle under wrong, placable and forgiv ed in that frame and on that countenance, can ing, meek in the extreme, and humble in excite no wonder; but that there should be not his self-estimate; and though not endowone symptom of soured temper, or bitter recol-ed with as much intellectual strength or lection, or unkind thought, nay, not even of firmness as the critical circumstances in remembered humiliation and anguish, is proof which he was placed required, yet possessnot only of a sweet disposition, but of a welltutored and well-governed mind, and of strong ing a moral power of enduring, for conprinciples capable of such guiding power." science sake, in the maintenance of what he considered his duty, which supported him against the pressure so heavily and unscrupulously imposed upon him; add to these, habits of life, simple, frugal, and regular in the extreme-the training of the monastery carried into the Vatican, and one has a fair summary of Pius VII. As we have given Cardinal Wiseman's sketch of the pontiff physically, let us place beside it the moral picture by the same hand: esteemed. the Barnabas Chiaramonti was of noble birth, endowed with a singularly mild and sweet disposition. with an early bias to religion, due, no doubt, in part, to the teaching of a mother as distinguished for her virtues as for her birth. At the age of sixteen he sacrificed wealth, rank, family ties, ambition, and apparently earthly aggrandizement, to become a Benedictine monk, under the humble name of Brother Gregory. When Clement XIV. was raised to the popedom, Gregory, least one has heard it again and again ex"It has been a generally received opinion, at anxious to witness the ceremony of the pressed, that the qualities of the heart prevailed benediction, leaped up behind an empty in Pius VII. to the almost exclusion of intelcarriage, and was accosted by the driver lectual gifts. Kindness and benevolence, forin words that were afterwards singularly givingness and meekness, have been fulfilled: "My dear little monk, why are characteristics by which he has been generally you so anxious to see a function which known, and for which he has been universally one day will fall to your lot?" The au- gentleness of nature, it was by no means an But, however remarkable this thenticity of this anecdote is vouched by usurper of his entire character. Though not Cardinal Wiseman, on the authority of possessed of genius, nor of over-average abilities the Pope's secretary, to whom the Pope perhaps, what he had were fully cultivated and communicated it. We are not disposed vigorously employed. It is far from being the to doubt it, though we look upon it as object of this work to reproduce matter already one of those random shots, a thousand of published, or load its pages by long quotations. which miss the mark and are forgotten, dinal Pacca's excellent memoirs for a fuller exIt will be, therefore, sufficient to refer to Carwhile the one that hits is noted and re-planation on this subject. He traces, indeed, membered. A somewhat similar prediction is, we recollect, said to have been made by a tradesman to Sextus V. Chiaramonti passed through the usual courses of philosophy and theology, if not with any great distinction, at least respectably; then he became professor, first at Parma, and subsequently at Rome. He was, successively, abbot, bishop, and cardinal, till on the death of Pius VI., in 1800, the conclave assembled under the imperial influence raised him to the dignity of the popedom. His public life thenceforth, as pope, is matter of history, into which we need not enter. Pistolesi, his biographer, Artaud, in his life of Pius VIII., and Cardinal Pacca, the bold and to this mistaken apprehension of the Pope's character, the afflicting collision which ensued between the two greatest spheres of spiritual and of temporal power-the see of Rome and the empire of France. But one sentence says so much to our present purpose, and will spare ject, that it will be well to quote it. After remarking that having been associated with the Pontiff under such varieties of situation, it would have been impossible for his character to have remained disguised from him, the Cardinal thus proceeds: Having, therefore, attentively studied his character, and well knowing his man by no means deficient in talent, nor of disposition, I can affirm that Pius VII. was a weak, pusillanimous nature. On the contrary, he was a man of ready wit, lively, more than commonly versed in the sacred sciences, and so much less authoritative treatment of the sub especially possessed of that peculiar description | the same period. Cardinal Wiseman is of good sound sense that in matters of busi- himself an accomplished scholar, and well ness intuitively perceives the difficulties to be fitted to appreciate those with whom his overcome and sees every thing in its proper position in Rome brought him in contact, light.'" for he filled, for a time, the office of librarian at the Vatican. We find here Pius was happy in having great ministers upon whom to lean. Pacca, whose some sketches of the learned men then at clear judgment so often guided him, and Rome, which, though little more than whose firm heart sustained him in impris-larities which abound in the configuration, outlines, are happy in catching the angu onment and in sorrow. Consalvi, whose great statesmanship guided him through is the antiquarian, Fea, the erudite, and mental and physical, of scholars. There many a political difficulty, and gave vigor adust archæologist, the distinguished anto his administration. This last is unques- notator upon Winkelmann, who could tionably the most distinguished Roman of his times, and familiar, especially to the English reader, as he was the first Cardinal who, after a lapse of two centuries, appeared publicly in London, as such, on the occasion of presenting the Pope's brief to the Prince Regent. Cardinal Wiseman devotes a whole chapter to a biographical sketch of this eminent man, and he has written it in a style worthy of his great subject; the final summary is just and forcible: "The Pope and his minister seemed providentially made for each other. The comprehensive and energetic mind of Consalvi, his noble views and his industrious love of details, filled up that void which might otherwise have succeeded the restoration, and have created disappointment, after the admiration and love that years of exile had won for the Pontiff. The wise and gentle and unshaken confidence of the prince, gave ample room for expansion to the abilities and growing experience of the minister. Without the one the other would have been useless; and whichever failed first, seemed sure to lead to the extinction of the other. Indeed they fitted so truly together, that even physically they may be said to have proved equal. The amount of vigor, health. and power meted out to the secretary was in just proportion to his need of them. He retained them as long as they were required by him, for whose comfort and glory they had been intrusted to him." Pius died on the 20th August, 1823, and the minister, having then fulfilled his earthly mission, in five months after, "calmly went to rejoin, in a better world, the master whom he had faithfully served, and the friend whom he had affectionately loved." Passing over the portions of this volume, which are devoted to an exposition of the policy of the Government of Pius VII., we pause a moment upon the chapter which treats of the state of literature, science, and art, at Rome, during bring to the illustration of any subject a heap of erudition from every imaginable dals, vases, bass-reliefs, or unheeded fragsource, from classics or fathers, from methe rubbish of museum magazines. "Day ments of antique objects, hidden amidst hours in the same place in the library of after day one might see him, sitting for the Minerva, at the librarian's desk, poring to the end of life over old books still " -not a very comely man, but rather looking like a "piece of antiquity, not the less valuable because yet coated with the dust of years, or a medal still rich in its own oxidization." Sharp, rough, decisive, dogmatic, who, at a glance, would decipher all the mysteries of a coin or a medal, at which others had spent hours in vain. The Abbate Francisco Cancellieri was a thorough contrast to the former: tall, thin, erect, elastic, clean and neat to faultlessness, courteous, serene, and smiling; a voluminous writer upon all sorts of subjects, of whose writings Niebuhr has said that "6 "they contained some things that were important, many things that were fluous." The distinguished Dr. Pappenuseful, and every thing that is supercordt, too, whose short life gave such great promise, was in Rome, at this period; but, above all, there was Angelo Mai, the great explorer of palimpsests. Of him, however, and some other notabilities, the Cardinal speaks more at large, in his memoirs of a subsequent Pontiff. Like a good churchman Cardinal Wiseman holds that the pulpit is one of the best indexes of the national literary taste. Though we are not disposed to yield entire assent to his views on this point, we have read with great pleasure his critical review of literature in the progress of establishing his proposition. To one statement we give our own hearty concurrence as ear and eye-witnesses-namely, the marvelous power, both of both of grace, diction, and gesture, which so eminently distinguish Italian preachers. More than once have we been present on an occasion, such as described by the writer, at the preach ing of a very distinguished man, Father Pacefico Deani : "Hours before the time, the entire area was in possession of a compact crowd, that reached from the altar-rails to the door, and filled every aisle and all available standing room. The preacher ascended the pulpit, simply dressed in his Franciscan habit, which left the throat bare, and by the ample folds of its sleeves added dignity to the majestic action of his arms. His figure was full, but his movements were easy and graceful. His countenance was calm, mild, unfurrowed as yet by age, but still not youthful he seemed in the very prime of life, though he survived very few years. To one who could not, except very imperfectly, understand the language, and who had never heard a sermon in it, the observation of outward qualities and tokens was natural, and likely to make an indelible impression. Indeed, I remember no sermon as I do this, so far as the 'faithful eyes' go. And yet the ears had their treat too. The first, and merely unintelligible accents of that voice were music of themselves. It was a ringing tenor, of metallic brilliancy, so distinct and penetrating that every word could be caught by every listener in any nook of the vast church, yet flexible and varying, ranging from the keenest tone of reproach to the tenderest wail of pathos. But the movement and gesture that accompanied its accents were as accordant with them as the graceful action of the minstrel, calling forth a varied and thrilling music from the harp. Every look, every motion of head or body, every wave of the hand, and every poise of the arm was a commentary to the word that it accompanied. And all was flowing, graceful, and dignified. There was not a touch of acting about it, not an appearance of attempt to be striking." Pius VII. was, in his way, a patron of the fine arts-that of sculpture had been almost re-created shortly before his time by the genius of Canova; but our author truly observes, that the works in painting executed during this pontificate in Rome are not worthy of Italian art. Still Pius did not a little in filling the long corridors leading to the Vatican Library with monuments, urns, busts, and statues, while the walls were lined by him with inscriptions-Pagan on the one side and Christian on the other. To the library, too, he made considerable additions, not only of manuscripts, but of many thousands of printed volumes. He construct ed a new gallery in the capital, whither he removed from the Pantheon the busts of all the distinguished Italians that were theretofore ranged round its walls; and, above all, he commenced that series of excavations round the ancient monuments of the city, which have been since continued with such signal results in advancing and illustrating antiquarian knowledge. Full of years and of virtue the good Pope died, on the 20th of July, 1823, the object of the steady and unvarying love of his Cardinal Wiseman justified in the observsubjects; and, upon the whole, we think ation: "One may doubt, if there be an instance in history, where the judgment of posterity is less likely to reverse the verdict of contemporaries." The Papacy is now the only elective monarchy in Europe, so, when a pope dies, it requires some time ere the electors can be assembled from the distant lands through which they may be dispersed. This interval is occupied in the obsequies of the deceased pontiff he is embalmed, clothed in the robes of his office, and laid on a couch of state within one of the chapels of St. Peter's, so that the faithful may see him and kiss his feet. After three days commence funeral rites, closed by a funeral on the ninth day. On the afternoon of that day the cardinals assemble in a church near the Quirinal Palace, and walk thend in procession to the great gate of that royal residence in which one will remain as master and supreme lord. A scene of this impressive character was not likely to be without its full effect upon our author. He has described it with a life-like vigor, picturesque and dramatic, that puts it almost within our very vision -describing, one by one, the most distinguished of that body of spiritual princes whose names are part of the history of their age, till he comes to the last portrait in his picture: noticed one in that procession, tall and ema"Perhaps not a single person there present ciated, weak in his gait, and pallid in countenance, as if he had just risen from a bed of sickness, to pass within to that of death. Yet he was a person holding not only a high rank, but an important office, and one necessarily active amidst the population of Rome. For he was its Cardinal Vicar, exercising the functions stranger: the constant drain of an exhausting of Ordinary. Nevertheless, to most he was a complaint not only made him look bloodless, but confined him great part of the year to his chamber and his bed." This was Hannibal della Genga, the future Leo XII. He was the son of Count Hilary della Genga, and had been taken by Pius VI. into his household. In 1793, being then only thirty-three years old, he was consecrated Archbishop of Tyre. Subsequently he was diplomatically employed in Paris, after which he retired into privacy, to be drawn from it in order to be the bearer of a letter from the Pope to Louis XVIII., on his restoration. In 1816 he was raised to the cardinalature, and in 1820 was appointed Vicar of Rome, to become its sovereign three years later. The conclave at which the Pope is elected now takes place in the Quirinal Palace. It is a proceeding unlike any thing that we know of-a part of that profound policy of the Church of Rome which has been well characterized as "the very masterpiece of human wisdom." Every precaution is apparently taken to exclude all external influences from reaching those to whom the duty of selection. is committed-how vainly so, let the annals of many an election declare. During the conclave each cardinal lives apart with his attendants in the chambers allotted to him, and every thing that reaches him, even his food, is jealously scrutinized. The first day visitors are suffered to enter: "After that all is closed; a wicket is left accessible for any cardinal to enter, who is not yet arrived; but every aperture is jealously guarded by faithful janitors, judges and prelates of various tribunals, who relieve one another. Every letter even is opened and read, that no communications may be held with the outer The very street on which the wing of the conclave looks is barricaded and guarded by a picquet at each end; and as fortunately, opposite there are no private residences, and all the buildings have access from the back, no inconvenience is thereby created. world. "While the conclave lasts, the administrative power rests in the hand of the Cardinal Chamberlain, who strikes his own coins during its continuance; and he is assisted by three cardinals, called the 'Heads of Orders,' because they represent the three orders in the sacred college of bishops, priests, and deacons. The ambassadors of the great powers receive fresh credentials to the conclave, and proceed in state, to present them to this delegation, at the grille. An address, carefully prepared, is delivered by the envoy, and receives a well-pondered reply from the presiding cardinal. voter's name can not be seen, write the name of him for whom they give their suffrage. These papers are examined in their presence, and if the number of votes given to any one do not a manner that the smoke, issuing through a constitute the majority, they are burnt in such flue, is visible to the crowd usually assembled in the square outside. Some day, instead of this usual signal to disperse, the sound of pick and hammer is heard, a small opening is seen in the wall which had temporarily blocked up the great window over the palace gateway. At rude door, through which steps out on the ballast the masons of the conclave have opened a cony the first Cardinal Deacon, and proclaims to the many, or to the few, who may happen to be waiting, that they again possess a sovereign and a Pontiff. On the occasion of which we treat the announcement ran as follows: "I give you tidings of great joy; we have as Pope the most eminent and reverend Lord, Della Genga, Priest of the title of St. Mary's Hannibal Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church beyond the Tiber, who has assumed the name of Leo XII.'"* Cardinal Wiseman candidly admits that human passions and human failings may find their way into even this sanctuary, but he asserts that many prejudiced writers have formed an unjust estimate on this head. This is a truism of which we should scarcely expect such a logician to have been guilty. The estimate of prejudiced persons is always unjust; were it otherwise, those prejudices would be inoperative, that is, non-existent. But unprejudiced persons form estimates of papal elections somewhat more in accordance with the evidence of history, and the influences that operate in all human affairs, than, we think, Cardinal Wiseman does, who perhaps is not just in the condition to be himself a very unprejudiced judge in the matter. The influence exercised by Austria and France on various occasions can not be gainsaid, and the sacerdotal character of the electors will not protect them from those influences operating upon them in their political capacity, and on purely political grounds; and we fear it is but a very partial manner of stating these political intrigues as he does: *Although it is a well-known fact that a Pope already in the catalogue of his predecessors, it is not on his accession takes a new name, by usage one so generally known that, in the signature to the originals of bulls, he retains his original Christian name. Thus Leo XII. would continue to sign him"Twice a day the cardinals meet in the chapel self as "Hannibal," and the present Pope signs belonging to the palace, included in the inclos-"John," at the foot of the most important ecclesiasure, and there, on tickets so arranged that the tical documents. The form is, "Placet Joannes." |